DPM dr tony tan replied to the enquires of the members of parliment what will singapore's response be if a singaporean is kidnap by the terrorists, following the withdrawal of the philippines troops in iraq. he emphasize that singapore will not bow to the requests of the terrorists if ever such incident occurs but the government will do its best to save the hostage.

its not easy to make a decision in this kind of situation. on one hand is the reputation of the country at stake. another hand is the life of a fellow countryman at stake. i agree that we should not bow to the requests of the terrorists but perhaps these politicians make this statement as they do not have any worry that any of their family members will be kidnap by the terrorists and face such ordeal as their families are all safe and sound in singapore. what happen if the one being captured is his son? will he still hold on to his statement? or will he actually ask the government to withdraw the troops to save his son?

many times when we make a decision, we do it at the benefit of our own and at the expenses of others (if necessary). one good example is the kidnapping of hostages by the terrorists as i mentioned above. hence i admire president arroyo's decision to withdraw her troops despite the discouragement from the U.S. its her country man at stake... its a war that she did not start so why should she risk the life of the country man for "good relationship" with another country? another example will be the increase in public transport fares. why does the PTC almost always allow the operators requests to hike fares? one good explanation will be that those who make the decision dun use public transport at all! they have their own car(s) so it does not matter to them at all if the fare increases to $5 a trip! they will still say "its necessary as costs of operations have increased.." wat bullshit!

i wonder if really a singaporean is held hostage... will the government risk its relationship with the U.S. by withdrawing troops or will they risk their support of the people by being cold blooded and let his fellow country man die...